Braking Improvement - Wife's bike

Calpol

A few weeks ago I bought the wife a road bike. She really likes it but is struggling a little with braking from the hoods. Its Sora 9 speed but the 2013 model that adopts the paddle downshift. Its quite a nice system but I have to admit that the whole Shimano lever system does seem to make things harder to brake from the hoods. She is resorting to braking from the drops which isn't ideal.

A couple of ideas to improve this
1) suicide levers which could be mounted on the tops
2) switch to Campagnolo but this would be v expensive - I have Veloce and its much easier to operate the brakes from the hoods
3) switch the STI to SRAM or try and pick up some 9 speed ultegra - I admit I dont know if this will help at all.

Any thoughts?

styxd

Why is she struggling to brake from the hoods? Have you bothered trying to adjust bar/stem/lever position to suit her?

Calpol

styxd wrote:

Why is she struggling to brake from the hoods? Have you bothered trying to adjust bar/stem/lever position to suit her?

Its less of a reach issue more that the mechanism is quite stiff to operate. I have adjusted the cable tension a bit to ease it but I don't want to lose all the stopping power.

lotus49

I have a Giant Defy 3 which comes with the 2013 Sora. I improved the braking performance hugely just by upgrading the pads. The ones that came with the bike were terrible so, if you haven't done that yet, that should be your first step.

Calpol

lotus49 wrote:

I have a Giant Defy 3 which comes with the 2013 Sora. I improved the braking performance hugely just by upgrading the pads. The ones that came with the bike were terrible so, if you haven't done that yet, that should be your first step.

Sadly this is missing the point. This is more about the difficulty operating the lever from the hoods and not about pad/rim performance.

freezing77

These http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cane-creek-crosstop-brake-levers/



NOT suicide levers, different principle.

Calpol

freezing77 wrote:

These http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cane-creek-crosstop-brake-levers/



NOT suicide levers, different principle.

Thanks for that - I will check out if these are compatible with sora 2013. Cheers

andrewjoseph

why is braking from the drops not ideal if she gets better performance and control?

i find i have more confidence in braking when in drops, it is my preferred position for serious braking. better grip, more power, more control due to better leverage.

i took the cross levers off my wife's bike ( with her permission), she was relying on them for serious braking and they didn't perform well enough.

however, i did get her shimano 6703 sti's (triple), due to them having smaller reach to levers and improved ergonomics over the tiagra's that came with the bike.

i have also used the bigger spacers to bring the levers closer to the bar. if you don't have the wedges/spacers, glue a bit of plastic/rubber to the top of the lever.

check cables and pivots are not sticking

Calpol

andrewjoseph wrote:

why is braking from the drops not ideal if she gets better performance and control?

i find i have more confidence in braking when in drops, it is my preferred position for serious braking. better grip, more power, more control due to better leverage.

i took the cross levers off my wife's bike ( with her permission), she was relying on them for serious braking and they didn't perform well enough.

however, i did get her shimano 6703 sti's (triple), due to them having smaller reach to levers and improved ergonomics over the tiagra's that came with the bike.

i have also used the bigger spacers to bring the levers closer to the bar. if you don't have the wedges/spacers, glue a bit of plastic/rubber to the top of the lever.

check cables and pivots are not sticking

Thanks for that reply. some good tips in there, i will look to see if I can make any mods to the position or shim the levers as you suggest. will also keep my eyes peeled for some ultegra levers on ebay.

Baby Trek

Hi, yes I have had this problem with my bike - I can brake perfectly well on the hoods but struggled to get a good enough grip from the drops (mine was a reach problem). Because we are doing some of the French Tour climbs in July, I got out local bike shop to put a couple of spacers in and the reach on the drops is better now...also helped with braking from the hoods too as can use less pressure for the same amount of effect.